Bridge | 7 January 2023

Did you make any new year’s resolutions? High on most people’s lists – along with shedding a few pounds – is to exercise more. But what about mental fitness? It’s a lot more fun than getting sweaty in the gym – and all it requires is taking up bridge. Bridge really is the best mental workout you can do; endless scientific studies have proved that it staves off dementia. But forget the studies – just ask anyone who plays, at any level. To quote the Irish novelist Colm Toibin: ‘Bridge saved me from becoming a lazy bastard.’

My own resolution isn’t to play more but to play better: to push myself harder, minimise the lapses of concentration, banish the brain fog. In other words, to try and be more like – well, any of the world-class players I so admire. I’ll pick the Norwegian star Boye Brogeland, given that he has just won the International Bridge Press Association’s award for Best Defended Hand of 2022.

Boye (South) led the ♠10. Declarer (John Kranyak) won with dummy’s ♠Q, and led a low club. Had North, Christian Bakke, risen with his ♣K and played another club, or switched to a heart, the contact would fail –but that was an almost impossible play to find, even for someone as good as Bakke. Boye, however, was there to rescue the defence: he played the ♣7 under declarer’s ♣J! East played the ♦9 to Boye’s ♦A next, and Boye switched to the ♣5. Bakke won with his ♣K and found the heart shift for one off. What fantastic vision!